

BY SALLIE HOFFMAN PERRY 




I 



Copyright 1910 

by 

Sallie Hoffman Perry 



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Contents; 

The Singing Febn . _ _ _ .9 

A Song of Sixpence _ i _ _ _ 20 

Monition _____ gg 

A Retrospect _ _ _ _ _ 24 

- - - - 26 

- - - - 30 

Cecile, to Thee - _ _ . 31 
Asters 



An Idyl of the Faith 

A HOMILI 



The Golden Blessing 
Along the Brook 
The Ishmaelite _ 
The Rush — The Rose 
The Ruing Heart 



April Verse 
Yestereve 
Mirror Pictures 
Evermore Sighing 



32 
34 
35 
37 
40 
41 



My Cloister . I _ _ ^g 

October Days 
Fob a Birthday 



43 
44 
45 
46 

47 
49 



$oemfii 



*% 



$oems{ 



®bE Rinsing JFern 

jyiT'HE hushful road sequestered steals 
^U/ All idly to its bound forlorn, 

A silent, empty mill unsought 

By foot, nor ever traced by thought. 
Nor visited by rustic wheels 

Bringing the autumn corn. 

Untracked the hushful road's repose 

By aught save errant hares with maze 
Of dimpling touches, or a band 
Of quails that star the placid sand. 
Or, patten shod, a witch who goes 
Peering midst thicket ways. 

Through bosky hazel thrids the rill 

To glimpse a reach where linnets chime: 
Spring uplands blanch with Ember snows 
While bland the valley reach and blows 
The Joyance herb's thrice-odored frill — 
Rosemary, fennel, thyme. 



POEMS 



"Ho, eery dame, ho! prythee, dole 
A sprig o' Joyance unto me," 
Saluted one as, debonair. 
He tripped a thawing shallow where 
With dusky ridge an earthing mole 
Chequered the hazel lea. 



And bourgeoned round a shining stone 
The Joyance herb's preluding bloom : 

Ninefold crossed riddlewise her palms. 
The witch slow gleaned a mystic alms 
Of blossoms twain: "Hail!" shrilled the crone- 
" Joyance — and pleasure doom! 



**By All Souls' mere, like leper, shrift 
Foregone, a nightshade-girted yew 

Cowers, ashen galled while crouch and 

whine 
Bleared, cankerous, grisly beings nine; 
There deadwood coal shall char the gift. 
Merrymake, thou — and rue!" 

10 



POEMS 



Mid All Souls' glen the rill tide weaves 
In exile from the hazel lea; 

By happing weir of root and shell 
It seems a trailing spirit bell, 
And gay the thatch its hedge receives 
From the height's forestry. 



A pilgrim revery, it wends 

To silence, and the twilight mien 

And sloth that wrap the grotto pool; 
There plots of cicely spread cool. 
In sward of mint lush balsam bends. 
Lush all the bank worts lean. 



And where the stream renounces range 
At threshold of its tideless urn 

A porphyry niche, a still recess 
Whose light recedes to solemness, 
Environs dim the spectral, strange 
Realm of THE SINGING FERN. 



li 



POEMS 



Ideal blends with visual 

To fashion here a marvel sheaf: 

The Fern's phantasmal courts beseem 
The soul of Mystery adream; 
Its amber stalk is wildly tall, 
Nardine its amber leaf. 



O calm, delectable the lay 

That cadences the frondy sphere! 
Its halcyon voicings mildly well 
And fold the stream's illusive bell. 
Nor heart, save Constancy's, may say, 
"I do the chanson hear." 



The moon of goodly Hallowmass 
In evening orient was declared — 

All cloudlet-freaked her sallow vest, 
And in a garden-tinted west 
Our gracious sun had sped the pass 
Whither an eve star fared, 

12 



POEMS 



When from the hamlet, on by sere, 

Long ravished roods of flax and grain — 
Her plats like rye of harvest hue — 
The weaver's dove-eyed lass withdrew 
Forsakenly to All Souls' mere. 
Broken with wrong and pain. 



There glebe of many a moldering tree 
Wrought devious hollows tenanted 

With bramble stoles that gauntly fell 
Along the nook's berimming swell. 
And heremid faltering whispered she, 
"Ever, forever dead — 



"Forever dead!" Her brow abased 
Upon the moonlight-burnished sod, 
She whispered by the turfy bole, 
*'0 quiet, fair — thou gravelike knoll. 
Were I but dead — from time effaced 
Ever— Ah! pity, God!" 

13 



POEMS 



O calm, delectable the lay 

"That cadences the frondy sphere! 
Its halcyon voicings mildly well 
And fold the stream's illusive bell, 
Nor heart, save Constancy's, may say, 
"I do the chanson hear." 



The damsel prayed, "God, pity me!" 
How dawned the halcyon interlude! 

She, pondering, guessed the winsome trill 
Now accent of the pilgrim rill — 
Now worldly bard — now aspen tree 
Lisping unquietude: 



How pure the minstrel wondrousness! 

She smiled. Then all the porphyry cell, 
"Tranquillity, tranquillity. 
Tranquillity," intoned and she. 
Essaying toward the dim recess. 
Glided within the spell. 

14 



POEMS 



O calm, delectable the lay 

That cadences the frondy sphere! 
Its halcyon voicings mildly well 
And fold the stream's illusive bell 
And lo, a constant heart did say, 
"Peace — I the chanson hear!" 



The aspen leaflet lisped anew, 

And fleecy shadbush pearled 'the fen 
As from the hamlet, past a land 
By vernal furrow straightly spanned. 
One with his troth-ringed maid withdrew 
Cheerly to All Souls' glen. 



'*Thus tuned the thrush above my path 
To quest the witch of All Souls' mere," 
He lilted: "Mine, our hearts fulfil 
Her guerdon. Love me. Sweet, and still 
Be April love as aftermath. 
Richer than was its year." 

15 



POEMS 



Where glebe of many a moldering tree 
Rimmed nooks with heartsease tenanted, 
He lightly pulled the bloomy stem 
And loverwise he cloistered them 
Within her comely breast while she 
Smiled in his clasp and said, 



"Truelove so fond!" and glad they neared 
The shadowy rift where rose the Fern 
As amber, nardine, wildly tall: 
She leant beside the porphyry wall; 
*'How lone!'* she mused — his lips endeared 
Hers — "Ah! but wherefore turn? 



"Art thou so coy, then?" sneered the maid — 
Unheard the Fern serenely sung — ; 

As, elsewhere bowed in chastened awe, 
"Unban, O Love, the scathing flaw!" 
He moaned. "Meseems Love shall upbraid 
Love in the boon," she flung. 

16 



POEMS 



"Beloved, loveliest," forth he .wailed, 

"Bid thine and mine forgive by thee — 
Ah! saintly mirror of my sin. 
Reflect my tears! limn thou within, 
* Absolved — absolved!'*' His arms were paled 
Round unreality. 



Aloof, the maid, ruth-harrowed now. 

Had fain her truelove's clasp retrieved. 
And, wildered sore in troublous thrall. 
She leant beside the porphyry wall 
As, "Precious bosom, precious brow!" 
Murmuring yet, he grieved. 



"lU-mottoed heartsease!" cried the maid, 
"Alas, my bridal and my love! 

Ho, eery dame, ho! prythee, dole 
Thy Joyance for a joyless soul" — 
Mute in the larch bough where she prayed 
Shrank a blind, wasting dove. 

17 



POEMS 



"Hail!" shrilled the crone — the spirit bell 
Trailed antiphon sedate and low — 

"Well- wish for child-life born unblest. 
For brew of motherhood's worn breast 
Well- wish; but goad and bane of Hell 
For him who scorned their woe!" 



The youth, erewhile so debonair, 

Wanned plaining where the glen recessed 
Its marvel sheaf. "Ah! sanctified, 
Beloved, loveliest," yet he sighed, 
"Compassionate thou my despair 
Bitter with Hell's unrest!" 



O calm, delectable the lay 

That cadences the frondy sphere! 
Its halcyon voicings mildly well 
And fold the stream's illusive bell, 
Nor heart, save Constancy's, may say, 
"I do the chanson hear." 

18 



P P E M S 



When come was pious Hajlowtide — 
Sad-colored all of lea and fell, 

As once, the moonlight-burnished sod 
Turned lustrous vacancy, for trod 
He not but, shriven as he sighed. 
Glided within the spell. 



O calm, delectable the lay 

That cadences the frondy sphere! 
Its halcyon voicings mildly well 
And fold the stream's illusive bell. 
And lo, a constant heart did say, 
"Peace! — I the chanson hear." 




19 



POEMS 

S S>ons of g)ixpencE 

** Sing a Song o' Sixpence, 

A Pocketful o' Rye. ' — Mother Ooose. 

€CHO of the nursling heart 
All in manhood's yesterday, 
Prythee, gentle Myth, depart 

Not, albeit life is gray; 
Fellow yet its wiser art 

With its childhood's roundelay. 

Ho — the Song o' Sixpence still! 

Hey— the Pocketful o' Rye! 
Phoenix, charred of bone and quill 

Shall a classic flame defy — 
Let the Four and Twenty trill. 

Deathless, from their seething pie! 

Mother's rag- wove carpet fine 

Decked the parlor where the King 

Clinked his pelf, and Father's nine 
Beehives by the orchard spring 

Honey-heaped the pantry shrine 
Of the Queenly pleasuring. 

20 



POEMS 



Where the Blackbird ^Iched a nose 
Off the Maid her homespun fair 

Caps, and smocks, and furbelows 

Spanned our plot and brushed the pear 

Near the door — how soft its blows 

Filled the eaves trough hanging there! 

Bless the Song o' Sixpence still — 
Foreword lisping manhood's lore! 

Life is gray with toilsome ill. 
Pained in flesh, in spirit sore; 

Gentle Myth, somewhat fulfil 
Yet thy lullaby of yore. 




21 



POEMS 

ifWonition 

Tlober 

^OSEFARING Summer bee— 
-^^ Waif at my lattice wall — 

Bard in the jasmine fall 
Tuning thy minstrelsy. 

Pray, were thy buskins fine 
Wrought in a fumy swirl 
Mid the blown flush and pearl 

Of my love's eglantine ? 

Rosefaring Summer bee — 
Waif at my lattice wall — 
Bard in the linden thrall 

Tuning thy minstrelsy, 

O, by the balmy vine 

Caroled a lightsome girl. 
Troth-ringed, one fondling curl 

Bosomed with lock of mine ? 

22 



POEMS 

Voto of JBpBonea 

^TAY thee, vaunting heart, let Memory slow 
Trace a shore of dunes that ever strow 
Sallow-turfed an olden place of woe: 

Time is like a sigh, low frets the dim 
Wave, the silvery hills are wan, and slim, 
Weary herbs each weary dune betrim; 

Twangs the hurtling locust round the sand — 

Pallid all that pensive birchen land 

As its foam-pale bird above the strand. 

Thence, O heart, no gay ambrosial bee 
Trolls to Fancy mid thy lattice tree: 
Dearth is there and withered constancy. 



Welaway! Thou hast been fain to lie, 
Dune-bestrown and passionless, there by 
A dead maid where Time is like a sigh. 

23 



POEMS 

a Eetrogpect 

'7I|'JM[HEN myself was child-self — welaway, 
^^^^^i^ Placid foretime of the jocund hours 
And the somber years ! — abode three gray. 

Unwed sisters, pledged in golden dower's 
Covenant to bide unwedded aye. 

Wifehood thus forethralled in loveless ban. 
Lands excelled the troth of prince or hind; 

Moiling and austere, Janet and Ann, 

Phoebe, gentle-browed and wearing blind. 

Three and gray abode the spinster clan. 

Through an aspen coppice, vine-bespread, 

Curved a lane to where the turnstile veered — 

Hitherward when childly missions led 

How oblivious all, and vague, and weird 

Save the winsome garden blithely red! 

Soft returns the homely weaving-room 

Fraught with smell of mandrakes garnered long, 

Phoebe hesitant beside the loom. 

Child-self's patient page, or tale, or song 

Reaping riband gaud and wisp of bloom. — 

24 



POEMS 



O the winsome garden redly |?lithe! 

Richly wry the barberry hedge unpruned. 
Finches tinkled mid the hops that, lithe. 

Flared above the cote where martins Juned- 
Thrift, indulgent, lopped with tardy scythe — 

While sweet- William, wallflower, many a rose. 

Poppy, lady's-slipper, leafy ruth 
Of Love-lies-bleeding, hollyhock whose blows 

Sunned a bee in every silken booth 
Dappled all the tuneful, savory close. 

Welliway, life's tranquil foretime! — Three 
Passive graves hap-canopied with rude 

Weeds (unblithe, unruddy garden!) — Ye 
Sisters, welaway! Lament imbued. 

Friends, I would this versing memory. 




25 



POEMS 



lanBploftfjEjfaitf) 

" If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and 
take up his cross and follow me." — Holy Writ. 






iHERE a Northern headland curves the tide 
Like an Indian's arrowed bow, and, far 
Edged, unhewn, the olden forestside 

Frowned — illumined not by day or star — 
Faring ships discern a sanctijBed 

Cross — a weather-beaten shaft and bar. 

Once a tonsured meek, wise-hearted one 
Sought the dusky people of the wild 

Here and on this grassy height begun 
His evangel of the Undefiled; 

And, the red man to the paleface won, 
Manitou with Christ was reconciled. 

Strove wise-hearted Friar Ambrose long 

On the Northern shore, and here, betime, 

Christward folk in moccasin and thong 

Knelt where chapel bell gave pious chime. 

While the Cross that towered the belfry song 
Folded all in benison sublime. 

26 



POEMS 



"Certify me, shall the saintly ,will 

Ban the dream of smiling fancy ? Lo, 

Beareth God a blighting aspergill 

Casting only tear and sweat of woe?" 

Sighed the friar on his Mission hill — 

Cried the man with many a heartsick throe. 



Thence, when twilight waters hemmed the strand 
With repose, or like some wizard bard 

Winds thrummed every cedar, on the sand 
Friar Ambrose mused where pearly shard 

Strewed a homily while overspanned 
Somber meanings, mystery bestarred: 



"Lo, doth God enmesh us unaware? 

Felleth He by love, high Virtue's pride ?- 
Ah! doth Hell seduce by Heavenly snare? 

O, I yearn me sore for clasp of bride. 
Childly tie of mine own seed, and fair 

Hearth where joy and sympathy reside!" 

27 



POEMS 



Straightway curbing plaint would Ambrose wend, 
All remorseful, to the chapel shrine. 

Near his bruised Savior there to bend. 
Moaning plea for clemency Divine: 

Thus his natural manhood to amend — 
Shriving so the blossom of the vine! 



Ministrant, submissive, passion sealed. 
Friar Ambrose wrought him now a grave 

In the Mission's quiet garden field. 

Where, when dayspring traced the humid pave. 

Crept he downward, praying unrevealed. 
Chanting lone the Miserere stave. 



Roundabout the casual, dropping loam 
Smote him hushfully; the lissome weed 

Overhead that girt the bramble's dome 
Leant as if to learn the murmured bead: 

"Lord, Redeemer, bid Thy pilgrim home!" 
Wailed the worldsick penitent his need. 

28 



POEMS 



Bypast are the Mission brothers, turned 
Otherwhere — and Ambrose meekly still 

Tarries, mid a clovery meadow urned. 

Progress rifts the wild with mart and mill. 

And a Cross, by faring ships discerned, 
Tops a bypast Mission on the hill. 




29 



P O E M S 

^TUDENT of Life, despair, yet ever turn 
To ponder still the text that wildereth 
thee — 
Life's analects all shadowy and stern: 

So dim, so vexed the bound of fallacy 

The questing sage shall fools' delusion learn 

And fostered lore the lore of error be. 

Student of God, by the frayed page of Creed 
Interpreting, full gently, humbly bless 

Th' uncreeded, lest, through love's withholden 
deed. 
Faith be enthralled in rancor's chill duress. 

And muse, O censor soul, how warped our meed 
Of knowledge, be it creeded or creedless. 

Student of Mystery, shalt thou be shown 

That cryptic Law unkenned by wit of Time ? 

As a spent thought the passive dead hath known 
Are the rapt longings of thy care sublime: 

Ah Self! — ah shred of being, nature strown! 
How barren as the echo of my rime! 

30 



POEMS 

Cecile, to tKtee 

^yiTHOIJ who wert once my friend, 
^^ Before estrangement did our faith bereave 
And bane the rose-hung brow with leaves of 
ruth, 
And shadow in a hue of dawnless eve. 

The hope-wrought vestiture of lulKng youth, 
How could we comprehend ? 

Thou who wert once my friend. 
Shall Joy forestall Regret's deploring knell ? 

Shall Peace, prophetic, tell of Friendship's bier ? 
O alien years, so beautiful your spell. 

Illusive, barren, tearful though your sphere, 
How could Love comprehend ? 

Thou who wert once my friend, 
Time cobwebs every eye, and fluting birds 

And merry tryst wane. Lo, our seat of fern 
Umber with stormcast leaves! Let Memory's words 
Lead thee, Cecile. — Hush! — Thou wilt not 
return : 
Alas! we comprehend. 

31 



POEMS 



^filters; 

i[lJl[Y dearest blossoms of the yeartime hold 
Jl ^' Scant eulogy, save wandering children's 
meed — 
All scentless, plain, a rustic autumn weed. 
Along the fields* rude verges they unfold. 

Fair breadths of stars revealed in sea and stream 
Record their numbers, zoned with purple 

fringe — 
As though September draped in aster tinge. 

Serenely opulent, reclined in dream. 

They are a pictured revery of hours 

Outlived in space — but not, ah! not in soul — 
Of blest romance, the blithe autumnal stroll, 

The buoyant, sheeny fleece of thistle flowers. 

The cricket's genial clangor, and the bland. 
Beguiling atmosphere that graced the world 
And smiled among the aster blows which purled 

Brook, field and coppice with a purple strand: 

32 



POE MS 



My heart retained a spray for .Memory's palm — 
Dear Aster Blossom! dearest of the year. 
All scentless, plain, I laud thee autumn's peer 

Of summer's Eden bloom and Eden balm. 




ss 



POEMS 



|APPY New Year and Godspeed! " 
Hailed my merry friend — 
"Hope, and song, and bloom thy meed!" 
Smiled my careless friend — 
"Dream with May's Elysian thrush 
Where prophetic orchards flush, 
With cicadas' heyday round 
Where the vales are corn-embrowned: 

Happy New Year and Godspeed!" 
Hailed my winsome friend. 

"Peaceful be the Olden Year," 
Spake my pensive friend — 
"Mildewed not by Memory's tear!" 
Sighed my way-wise friend — 
"Hope is beautiful to know 
When the daffodillies blow — 
Love is Peace, be song or moan, 
Festal rose or grave- weed lone: 

Peaceful be the Olden Year," 
Spake my peerless friend. 

34 



WB 



POEMS 



HERE the brook has silent birth, 
In a coverture of cresses. 
Mint perfumes the vernal bound 
Of its limpid well; 
Violets, windflowers tuft the earth. 
And the shadbush bloom's recesses 
Hold the gay melodious round 
Trysting sparrows tell. 

On the field brook's summer marge, 
Fair with sunny harebell weaving. 
Dews reveal the silken grace 
Of the primrose wand; 
Ruddy lilies, freckled, large. 

Bide anear the russet sheaving — 
^Bee, wren, cricket interlace 
Blossom, vine and frond. 




35 



POEMS 



On the wood brook's autumn strand 
Comely are the hazels yellow. 
Aster and the gentian low 
Braid its bosky side; 
Under mossy roots of bland 
Honey-tinted birches, mellow 

Glimpsed, the shallow's droning flow 
Quests the rivertide. 




36 



POEMS , 

tijje 3siftmaelite 

JMNTO my soul, far worn 

^^i^ Upon the scornful highroad of the day, 

Meet is the evening's bourne 
And meet this bypath where the landlord's clay 

Halts at the surfy sand. 

Lonely and fair, the dusk 
Swathes me how clemently! — as in a husk 

Knit by Compassion's hand. 

Roamer, cast thou thy staff, 
Cool ease of head these tufts of spearwort lend- 

Ponder life's cryptograph 
Of being and of thee: Love's faded friend. 

Dives' belauded gold, 

Strangerhood sore of man, 
The creeded arrogance of churchly clan. 

Ever the mold — the mold. 




37 



POEMS 



Shadowy waters comb 
Athwart the drif tweed reef: I dream a maid 

Virginal, sweet — the foam 
Her veil — she bride of mine. — Ah! grace-delayed, 

Loathly to dream be fain! 

Quickened from foamy shroud. 
Thy maid would flaunt thee from the faring proud 

Alms and an alms' disdain. 

Ishmaelite art thou, 
Thy fusty rags by fleering bramble sped: 

Haply thy dingy brow 
Is less barbaric for the hat of shed 

Riband and brim — such wears. 

Dear in a dell of time 
Foregone, the acorn. — Peace! be gloss or grime, 

Maunder thou not thy cares. 




38 



POEMS 



Dweller nor passer-by 
Considers thee — goodfellowship and song 

Pleasure them where the eye 
Is like a festival and fleetly throng 

Gossamer follies gay: 

Pace thou the dreary sand. 
All-hail the fisher's dog that roves the strand. 

Sleep in the lighthouse ray. 




39 



POEMS 



QTMBROSIAL bloom with many a lauded green, 
K% From seed to seed, in crystal cells of pride — 
Sequestered all from hurt of tempest tide — 
Dwell Fortune's pensioners, beloved, serene. 



Yet aye salute the fallow's elder nook 
Soft-flowered, the vagrant mullein gray and prim; 
Greet underfoot the sorrel's ruddy trim. 
The clean marsh marigold by fenny brook 

Oozing through April grasses; welcome, pray. 
The deadwood lichen's vermeil crest, for lo, 
Unkept, unlegended, God-wrought they grpw 
In excellence Divine of germ and spray. 



Hail, herb desired! Hail, herb that men forswear! 
Unwise were I to sing thee, thee to scorn. 
Alike the shrine, O honored, O hedgeborn. 
Of dream-led Poesy and Wisdom fair. 

40 



w 



POEMS 



! LITHE and fond — the fields were oaten 

sheaved — 

Blithe and fond where brier and hazel twine 
Wound we, gently trysting: unbereaved 

Sped the finch, soft belled the pilgrim kine 
Thronged in uplands mown : 
Welaway love's golden past! — 
**Nay, O ruing heart," steadfast 
"Nay," were Wisdom's tone. 

Troth and halcyon hope were my estate 

Ere the tears of Constancy — Ah, still 
Were thy tryst — though it was sorrow's gate — 
Thou, the harvest eve, the finch's trill, 
Unestranged, my own! 
Welaway love's golden past! — 
"Nay, O ruing heart," steadfast 
"Nay," were Wisdom's tone. 



41 




POEMS 



'JIT^APESTRY nor bronze, macaw nor lute reside 
^^ In thy chamber — lean Frugality's repose.'* 
Nay, blest largesses of beauty-light betide 

Heremidst: lo, Disdain, 'tis sovran Fancy's 
close! — 

Home and cloister mine and sovran Fancy's close 
Where romance is dear, unsweet the lust of 
pride; 
Bird sounds fold the roof, apart a garden blows. 
And I dreamful dwell, peace, hope and rime 
allied. 




42 



POEMS 



©ctober 3Baj>si 

'^fpALL shocks, like tawny wigwams, fleck the 
^ fields 

Of maize; athwart the sward Midfall has limned 
Her soul in leaf craft — lo, with frosted yields 

The sober earth like harlequin is trimmed! 

Amid the grape's dun webbing filmy spheres 
Of dusk and amber teem — in calm, chill tide 

Of woodland brook all dreamlike falls the year's 
Aromaed bronze of walnut heights beside : 

As through a bush of lavender bloom hints 

The pastoral farness — how, through dim delays 

Of glamour, like a wistful memory glints 

The pensive charm of these October days! 




43 



POEMS 



jFor a Pirtfjbap 

|fM[Y Friend, the lovely years that have been 
JTl thine 

Muse not as tearful shadows — rather shells, 
Beach- worn and reft of lustihood, where shrine 

Fair histories and Beauty's echo dwells. 

O may the day thy years far interlace — 

Each be a germ of peace and widening boon, 

As when by twilit birth a crescent's grace 

Evolves the spacious charm, the crowning 
moon ! 




POEMS 



TK O, where bushes fringe the lea 
>*^ Dawns the soft anemone! 
Mildly croons the rustic mill, 
Fair the sun-enameled hill 
Whence the cressy runnels lean 
Creekward all their tangly green. 

Where athwart an upland stone 
Tilts the leaching turf, unknown 
Hiding so, the sparrow may 
Through her weedy gate survey 
Peace and beauty far infold 
Hill, and stream, and April wold. 




45 



POEMS 



gesiterebe 

^^ESTEREVE we oared where pearly birch, 
^0^ Feigning moonlight,wreathed the island shade: 

Gilt with buoyant thistle birds the glade. 
Droned the brook along its haven search — 

Balm and flush clad all the summer glade 
Yestereve. 

Yestereve — ah! gentle, gentle time — 
Virgin's-bower veiled the mooring tree 
Where I breathed, "Sweet Nora, I love thee:" 

Shoreland bells afar, like mellow rime. 

Trailed sweet Nora's answer, "I love thee," 
Yestereve. 




46 



POEMS 



JHirror ^icturesJ 

aRT were weak to limn the shadows that entwine 
Mid yon mirror plane's simplicity of range 
Where — athwart a disk ellipsed with ebon vine, 
Moth, pomegranate, scroll, in boss and purfle 

strange — 
Tints, and forms, and shifts a harmony of 
change. 

Spirit-provinced there, emerge and onward wane 

Eastward, westward sails, gray volumed all 

and fair — 

Woodlands bourgeon soft beyond a grass domain 

Shot with April bloom where brawny herds 

repair — 
Thrifty furrows blend — and blend, of morrows 
there. 



47 



POEMS 



Swath and lusty sheaf — a wilding rivulet 

Hedged with tulip hues of autumn — where the 
lea 
Dimples, alder twig in carmine coronet — 

Past the vesp'er moon day purpling toward the 

sea: 
Art were weak to limn yon mirror's imagery. 




48 



POEMS 



Ctjerntore ^istJing 

^|XRIEF wendeth sighing 
V^ Past the glad province of Felicity — 
Unto the wastes of Dolor wendeth she. 
Evermore sighing. 

Fair are the fields this goodly Lammas morn. 

Meadow larks chime with many a dulcet bee, 

Maylike the green rill veins the russet shorn 
Wheat — and past wendeth Grief all drearily. 
Evermore sighing. 

Listing the ashen turtle's knelling croon. 

Heartsease bestead of Autumn snows to see. 

Graves, gray and rain-worn, desolate as the moon. 
Meet were for Grief who wendeth prayerfully. 
Evermore sighing. 

Prayerful and seeking that unworldly close, 
Solemn, reclusive, where the perished be. 

Thither to bear her friend's memorial rose — 
Kind, blessed Grief, alas! I wend with thee. 
Evermore sighing. 

49 



DFl 




One Qopy del. to Cat. Div. 



